Staying safe

In other words keeping busy, making kitchen hand towels..half a dozen, from old towels. To teach the Pirate to use a fresh one every day!!
While I wait for my turn on the easier turbotrainer.
No point going out in sideways rain showers. I have no wish to get soaked or blown off my bike.
We might go for a short walk later. For a change of air.
Or I might stay in the warm and bake!!

Quiet days

I am enjoying not dashing around shopping and going just for the sake of it...even a birthday day at home has been lovely! Hundreds of greetings on fb..it does have its uses...saves paper! Unfortunately less work for our posties.

So we have a pretty arrangement of gifts and cards on the mantelpiece.

My favourite is the handmade one in the middle by daughter and family 🙂

Today , after more rain last night, the blustery wind is back..and someone left the next in nextdoor's roof a bit too soon. Now in the bush by our back door, so we are using the front for a bit while parents feed it there.

This morning I have been listing a few more bike bits on eBay..slowly becoming worth doing, but slowly is the word!! 

Getting better

Another sale! A pair of pedals this time. That paid for an upgrade to the rear derailleur on my bike..we already have a quality but used hanger in stock, and it needed new jockey wheels...£30 and I will have gears on my bike that change smoothly.
Definitely an incentive to carry on selling!!

It has been a funny old day today..Pirate had a hospital appointment...they found nothing to see in his waterworks, so a kidney MRI is next. While he was busy with that I managed to do some shopping..not everything we need, but most.
We headed home and decided to take the scenic route...luckily...as we came across some fly tipping on a back lane.  One door in, home carefully , empty the car and return for the other two.
One needed attention, which it got with the help of a neighbour holding it while Pirate hit it with a hammer!!

 One mended and the others stored

It was a good thing that we found them today, as we are having a typical British Summer...two hot days...over 30 C in Prestwick today...and thunderstorms forecast tomorrow!!

The garden is coming along well with the sunshine and heat..and a thunderstorm will do it good, so long as we don't have the return of high winds!

A sale!

Just a small one, but it is encouraging..and a good excuse to combine exercise, shopping and posting!
It is a little hilly between here and our favourite post office, but beautiful views . A fifteen mile round trip was enough for today and it was lovely weather, sunny and warm with plenty of bird and insect life to see.

Tonight's side salad from the garden, with a small onion added.
Not much else has been done today apart from photographing more bike bits to sell. The machine behaved and did two washes and everything dried on the line!

Also the good news that a parcel of pots arrived in Minneapolis. A relief as the post office there went up in smoke! Now to wait to hear of two more deliveries, with goods taking up to two months.
Then the bad but understandable news...Royal Mail is adding a new rate, World Wide 3... initially just the USA...I think the parcel rate might be doubling as UPS (?) Who do the last part of delivering have doubled their rates. On top of that air traffic is costing more..

Giving

The garden has been beginning to yield edibles at last!

Plus salad leaves and radishes and a couple of onions that were beginning to bolt.
We have been indoors mostly for a few days, with the rain going sideways as the wind blows a hoolie once again..somebody remind the weather that it is summer up here as well!
Kent in the far southeast of England had 30 C today and "wall to wall blue skies"  We are promised a couple of hot days soon...probably the typical British Summer...Two hot days and a thunderstorm!!
Meanwhile we have been cleaning bits of bike and taking photographs, along with my pots as well...and are steadily adding them to eBay and Etsy respectively.  Small sales so far, but much better than nothing!
Add to that , the small table by our front path...I am offering plants for free ( or swap )...some cucumber and chard plants have gone so far.   I don't think locals are used to free things.

Carrying on

Just been carrying on gardening , potting up, potting on, planting out, repeat sowing....and beginning to crop at last. 

Salad leaves, a few small courgettes, radishes, chard, onions and garlic, and herbs, so far.

Otherwise trying to get my study looking less like a tip!! 

I know I need to keep drawing every day but I just haven't felt like it. 

Housework send to take too much headspace at the minute! Not helped by an aging washing machine!! A friend got it going today, but there are mentions of new door switch...new motor brushes..and possibly a new 'brain'!! The other alternative is get a secondhand but good quality brand machine

Couldn't resist this colour combination!

New blogger

Trying out this bit of new blogger..

I have managed the other bits ok so far! Getting there with this one!

Busy Bee

Sorting pots

After this morning's shopping, I got a bad case of inertia...but eventually got back into gear and opened the stock boxes that had been brought up to the house.
Now what do I sell? I must keep some for myself...to have a point to move on from.
I know that there is more than those I have unearthed today, the next problem is finding them!

Rather a set of oddments...

Now to think of prices, while cleaning and photographing vintage Campagnolo bike bits to sell!

Mainly gardening

Today ended up as mainly a gardening day..potting up everything possible, top dressing the runner bean large pots with manure, and wondering how I can fit everything in!
The pot storage shed got a sortout, now I have three storage boxes of work to sort out and hopefully sell!

 The wind has battered the onions..its a bit early to have them over like this

 Sweetcorn in the rasberry bed..with more runner beans at the corners!

 Lentils..just to try

Courgettes and salad leaves, and tomatoes on the other side

 Cucumbers coming along nicely, waiting for Pirate to build a cold frame outside

 The latest sowing

 Lots of hollyhocks!

 Pinto beans.they could be dwarf beans....or pole beans...

After tea we foraged some willow to carry on with weaving windbreaks
Then we saw the sunset..

It is far more peachy and pink than the tablet can capture..but you get the idea!